illumis - The Stories That Passed

mana pots to the rescue!

2008-04-23T11:15:00.005+08:00

Need some help staying awake while battling for the exams? This vial of liquid has been helping mages and priests for centuries to blast through monsters, and they are now available for geeks like you!

[ Mana Energy Potion Website ]

Unfortunately, they are currently out of stock and only ships within USA. The website is a funny read by itself though.

tanjong pagar heritage (part 2)

2007-06-28T23:44:00.001+08:00

This is the second part of the Tanjong Pagar heritage photos.

Titled "Shimmering Pearls", this work by Han Sai Por in 2001 is the first local sculpture that integrates a fountain to produce the desired effect. This has no heritage value at the moment but maybe if this blog last 50 years, things might change.

Murray Street Food Alley is a row of restored Art Deco shophouses. It was built in 1929 and restored in 1977.

"Samsui Women" was sculptured by Liu Jilin in 1999. It pays tribute to these labourers who spurred the growth of Singapore.

The Scarlet Hotel at Erskine Road had its external façade carefully restored, and a redesigned interior. This row of houses was built in 1924.

The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple is a magnificent cultural monument opened in 2007, at the heart of Chinatown. It houses the sacred Buddha tooth relic, in a stupa made of gold weighing over 400kg donated by devotees.

The entrance of Buddha Tooth Relic Temple faces Sago Lane. This region was used as a hospice for terminally ill or dying Chinese immigrant, and hence nicknamed the "Street of the Dead".

Five-foot walkway restored to its original charm, while given a new lease of life.

Smith Street used to house numerous brothels and was known as the red light district. The vice has since been cleaned up and the street is converted into Chinatown food street.

The towers of Jamae Mosque. This Indian Muslim mosque was built in 1826 and rebuilt in 1830 by Chulia muslims. It was originally named as Chulia Mosque.

Restored shophouses, built in 1928, situated along a serene alley in Tanjong Pagar.

I will be going to Civic District to take photos tomorrow. Yay! That means there will be more historical buildings to let you feast your eyes on, if you are actually interested in the first place hehe.

tanjong pagar heritage (part 1)

2007-06-27T23:51:00.001+08:00

As part of my job in NLB, after reading up on the history of a conservation area, I can go down to take photos that I feel are of heritage interest. Gerald accompanied me on my first "mission" to Tanjong Pagar last Friday.

It was the first time I got my hands on a $1600+ SLR camera. At the time of shooting, I did not have any proper training and know nuts about ISO, aperture, shutter speed etc. except for the impatient crash course by Mr Gerald, who tried to teach me everything about the camera in 10 minutes. *grin*

Points to note:
1) Although I took these photos, please refrain from downloading them for personal use as they are still unpublished by NLB.
2) This is a long post, and might take more efforts to detect lame jokes (if any). I try to keep the commentaries short.
3) I only included a small selection of low resolution photos, which I like for its artistic value or its composition that tugs at my heartstrings.

Red Dot Traffic, designed by F. Dorrington Ward. This conserved building was built in 1928 as a police barrack. Currently serves as a creative hub and red dot design award gallery.

The exterior view and the corridor view of Airview Building, where multiple beautiful patterns can be observed. This restored shophouse was built in the colonial periods.

Cityscape model of the downtown area housed in the URA Centre. Photo shows the urban plan of the future integrated resort site in Marina Bay.

A view of Peck Seah street from the URA Centre. On the left is the sculpture "Celestial Earth" by Sun Yu-Li (1999). The inspiration stemmed from the Confucian philosophy: "a square within, a circle without".

How some of our very young Singaporeans feel about our country. I like the way students of different races contributed to this piece, displaying our multi-racial cohesiveness. Cynics might claim that this is rigged.

How could I not highlight a sculpture that used white as its base color? This macro shot, which gently sets the background out of focus, made the sculpture stands out against the waterfall in URA Centre.

Another macro shot. Kids enjoying their playtime in the childcare centre, located at the second storey of URA Centre. So energetic and carefree.

Grooming our young Singaporeans for the future, to fulfil our vision for Singapore. The composition is so meaningful, I did not hesitate to bring out the camera.

Not very heritage-like you say? The Red Dot Traffic is a huge conserved and restored landmark building: it is there as an appetiser. Stay tuned for the next part which I promise will contain much more pre-war colonial goodies!

me quiz time

2007-06-25T20:04:00.001+08:00

Four quizzes, four responses. See which one got it right this time.

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I'd say my favourite X-men hero is Gambit. The reasons given for choosing Cyclops is somewhat flattering though.

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Spot on, Donatello is my favourite turtle. Ignoring the ugly purple belt, parkouring around the streets on sticks while catching baddies is cool.

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Assuming that Physics does not exists where the survey originates, Mathematics would probably still go below Engineering and Philosophy, Art and Psychology probably way above Chemistry. Overall, the top three picks for this question still is pretty accurate, just the order.

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Yep, white is numero uno. But pink in second?! OMG!

new job

2007-06-18T22:43:00.000+08:00

I have quitted my old job and is now employed by National Library Board as an Assistant Library Officer at the Library Supply Centre. My job scope can probably be categorised as administrative, although the responsibilities are much more casual compared to the usual office affair.

So I took a pay downgrade for this job switch, and in return get to work everyday. It seems worth it at the moment, and it better do since my old boss is a very nice person. If only I could work regularly for my old job, it would have been a really good job for me. Anyway these are small decisions in life, and I got to live with my choice hehe.

On another note, I noticed that my blog posts are becoming a bit like the "usual whining about life", on contrary to my MSN personal message. Many apologies if it is starting to get boring. I feel a bit tired to look out for interesting content after work these days. Hehe, bad excuse that made things worst... I will try to do something about it ^^

rich wq, poor wq

2007-06-05T22:30:00.000+08:00

Today, I took the MRT home from work as usual, except I was feeling a bit unwell so I did not change out to T-shirt, and went home in long sleeves instead. As I walked past the Citibank roadshow booth beside Tampines MRT station, a female staff actually came up to me to introduce some of their financial services.

For the past one month, I have walked past that stretch of road everyday without anyone from their booth approaching me. It is a sad fact of life that people are so judgemental. Young lad in street casual = no approach. Young lad in business casual = approach. It is all in the suits and ties, so fabricated and fake.

Unfortunately for the budding financial planner, it really does not matter. Formal or informal, I am still the same old penniless Wei Qiang :) That is life.

pc show

2007-06-02T23:03:00.001+08:00

I called Daniel out to go to the PC show today. Bin, Dan and I met up at around 5pm in Suntec City. They arrived first and went window shopping at another exhibition, the annual Book Fair. When I arrived, I noticed that the Book Fair was pretty quiet compared to the last time I visited, which could be due to the competition from the PC show two storeys above, which appeals more to the IT savvy generation.

When we went up to the PC show, there were a group of "angels" blowing soap bubbles and posing for the audience. No wonder no one was at the Book Fair, everyone was up here taking photos of the girls and flirting with them, while they blew bubbles into their faces.

The PC show was extremely crowded and hard to maneuver at some places. As usual, brands like Sony Ericsson, Singtel etc. have decided to brand themselves as PC dealers and appeared at the show shamlessly (and no, handphones are not the new generation PC ^^).

I bought another pair of 512MB RAMs to put into the second dual-channel slot for $110. Hence, my PC has 2GB of RAM now. Currently, I still did not notice any difference yet, hopefully I would when I play games later at night.

Bin and Dan was looking for some handphone memory stick upgrade, but they did not buy anything at the end. When we went out of the exhibition hall, the "angels" were gone and replaced by another group of posing girls. These Sony girls were accompanied by some extremely noisy drummers, who thankfully marched off after a short performance, leaving the girls to pose by themselves to the uncannily similar group of shuttlers. It seems like some people were there to take photos of pretty girls only (not me... I declare innocence with my RAM purchase hehe).

We went out of the Suntec building for dinner at Marina Square. The place was extremely crowded as expected, and I suggested that we go to Makan Sutra Food Street at the Esplanade instead. Somehow, we managed to find a seat at the Food Street easily. I ordered white carrot cake, three barbequed chicken wings, and (you guessed it) F&N Grape.

After dinner, we went to watch a bit of the NDP parade rehearsal. We arrived at the most boring parade segment, as if we needed to watch more parade after being through national service. The parade is moved to the waterfront this year, while they build a new national stadium. It looked like a floating platform, which would be pretty fun to watch if it starts sinking during one of the rehearsals :)

As usual, a trip to the Esplanade on weekends means a free outdoor concert performance. Instead of some rock bands, the management somehow got cranky this week and invited some crappy gothic lollita electronica group. They were horrible! The female lead singer like a 3 years old screeching... the ones you see in horror movies. I should have expected gothic lollita from the way they dressed anyway. Within 2 songs, Bin suggested that we should go, as in we REALLY SHOULD go. It was unbearable so I agreed to leave, but sincerely hoped we did not demoralise the performers with our lack of etiquettes.

Near the MRT station, Bin wanted to get some magazine from MPH. Hence, we took a short detour to Raffles City. At the central stage was some percussion performers. The act was pretty interactive as instruments were handed out to the audience to play along with them. The instruments handed out were obviously producing unimportant fringe sounds, but seeing that the audience (especially the kids) were having such a great time, I must say that they did a good job as entertainers.

It seems like the foreigners were enjoying the events organised as part of the Singapore Arts Festival. I think it is quite cool that there are performance at virtually every corner of Singapore! :)

visit to dad's workplace

2007-05-31T22:41:00.000+08:00

My brother drove my mum and I to my father's workplace for dinner. My dad currently works at a japanese cuisine stall in Changi Airport, terminal one basement one. It is not as grand as his old workplace, Hisatomo Family Restaurant, but it seems like the business is still pretty good. All the staffs were ex-colleagues in the restaurant, and hence their culinary skills and food quality are probably better than a typical foodcourt stall.

My father was in the kitchen when we arrived. The stall owner saw us first and immediately recognised my mother. My mum chatted with her for a short while, before the stall owner asked if we wanted to try their food. It was an awkward moment because I kind of knew that if I ordered anything, she would not charge me for the food. She recommended some of their all-time favourites, and said she will get me a set containing a mixture of tempuras, cutlet and stewed chicken to try.

When the food was served, there was no sign of cutlet. Apparantly, my dad decided not to cook me any fried food other than tempuras :) The stewed chicken tasted really good though, despite looking pretty plain.

In addition, I had a chocolate milkshake (if you are curious about why would I ever order chocolate flavour, it is because my brother somehow ordered my flavour, strawberry, and brothers just cannot order the same stuff especially when its pink in color hehe), and shared a banana split with my mum.

After that, we just walked around the airport aimlessly, while waiting for my dad to clear up and get off work. Of course, going to Changi Airport means that I have to satisfy my craving for Popeye's mashed potatoes. My brother bought me a two-piece chicken meal with upgraded mashed potatoes to bring home for supper. We somehow lingered there for over three hours in total and parking costed over $4!

When we reached home, my brother told me that I can keep this camera for myself! Yeah :)

anything or whatever?

2007-05-25T19:23:00.001+08:00

There is this new canned drink company in Singapore, which came out with an interesting concept. You have probably seen their advertistments around the bus stops. Basically there are two products - "Anything" and "Whatever".

"Anything" could contain any of six carbonated drink flavours like cola, root beer etc. "Whatever" could contain any of six non-carbonated drink flavours like peach tea, apple tea etc.

I find it quite interesting that they dare to market something that depends on peoples' indecision and love for randomness. I have yet to try their products, but would like to see if they can do well in the F&B business with such concept. However, I think that the can packaging needs some improvement as it looks pretty bland.

new wallet

2007-05-23T18:59:00.000+08:00

I bought a wallet from The Wallet Shop today. Was looking for the following criterias:

- Small and thin
- Single cash compartment
- Coin compartment
- Synthetic/Leather material
- No frills

If only there is no center flap, it would had been really perfect. However, its white so I gave it some big plus points!

I have been shopping around for a perfect one for quite some time, unfortunately still seemingly unavailable. I wonder why do wallet companies produce all their wallets containing hundreds of card compartments, and do not bother to design minimalistic ones. Same goes to the handphone companies, with their unlimited features that no one bothers to use.

minor updates

2007-05-19T23:30:00.000+08:00

There is actually nothing much to blog. I have been working during office hours and playing games during non-office hours.

Today I played soccer with Benny and Gerald. After that, Gerald and I went to Harborfront for lunch at Yoshinoya.

That is all folks. Hope it gets more interesting soon :)

touch singapore stl champions

2007-05-13T04:26:00.000+08:00

After 11 weeks of competetion in the Summer Touch League organised by Touch Singapore, our team OMD Pukeko topped the table and won the league. Though I am proud to be in this team, I am probably riding on the success of the real pros hehe.

After the final match against PSRC, we went to Lazy Lizard to celebrate. Somehow for unknown reasons, I was quickly found out that I do not drink. Hence, I became a target for forced drinking. Luckily I managed to divert their attention and escape with just three cups of San Miguel beer. The last time when this happened, it was worst.

We got this STL T-shirts from the organisers, which I felt was not particularly fashionable. So I decided to modify it a little: I borrowed a permanent marker from the bar counter, and asked for a signature from the director of Touch Singapore. I even got him to write "Men's Champion! Pukekos" on it!

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Thanks for the great season: Devon, Clifford, Lixin, Tony, Benny, AJ, Greg, Dan, Jonesy, Bus, Moses, Bao, Huffer, Gobbo. See ya at the National Touch League.

premier league 06/07

2007-05-07T21:03:00.000+08:00

The championship trophy is going back to Old Trafford.

you are hired

2007-05-07T14:48:00.000+08:00

I finally got a job today. It was recommended by Leben who told me that the company she worked at wants to hire a telemarketer. I was slightly hesitant at first because I will not compromise relationships by pushing insurance/MLM/direct sales crap to my friends and relatives.

Since Leben assured me that I only need to liase appointments for the company, and that the leads are provided, I decided to give it a try. To my surprise, the manager actually has two positions open: Teleappointer and personal assistant!

Wow! It is a job that I have been looking for a while. I took up the personal assistant position immediately. The manager seems like a very nice person to work for and I could probably assist her for the next few months.

So now I can:
1) Earn some money.
2) Monday to Friday job.
3) Aircon room (OMG chao4 geng1!)
4) Learn some useful skills and improve resume.
5) Play touch rugby on Saturday.
6) Go to church on Sunday.

I have been through so many interviews that I almost decided to heck care about work experience, and go back to giving tuition. Many of the interviews are basically spending time talking to human resource personnels from Recruit Express, who never seem to get back to you.

Or maybe I am just very unemployable :(

hell is exothermic

2007-05-05T01:52:00.000+08:00

Below is the answer to one of the questions by a student in McGill University for mid-term chemistry paper:

Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)? Support your answer with a proof

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyles Law (gas cools off when it expands and heats up when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So, we need to know the rate that souls are moving into Hell and the rate they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Some of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there are more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that most people and their souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyles Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose. Of course, if Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it? If we accept the postulate given to me by Ms. Celine LeBlanc during my Freshman year - that "it will be a cold night in Hell before I sleep with you" - and take into account the fact that I still have not succeeded in having sexual relations with her, then (2) cannot be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic.

He is the only student who got an A.

waht nnessnoe!

2007-05-02T21:56:00.000+08:00

Fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too!

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

post-exams thoughts

2007-05-02T21:14:00.000+08:00

No I am not bothered to do post-exams thought on exams - that is just stupid hehe. Just some thoughts on some random events yesterday:

1) Labour Day Rallies

Thousands hit the streets yesterday, in many countries, to protest against low wages. There are probably some good reasons to protest when human rights are violated. No matter what though, I still find it kind of ironic. The government give the labourers a holiday to recognise their efforts in nation building; the labourers use the holiday to protest. It is as if the government is helping them to organise a day to hold such rallies.

"Hey labourers, how about we set 1st May as the day for you all to protest against us?"

2) I was sitting on the MRT on the way back to hall from Esplanade. A young lady in her late 20s was standing in front of me. She appears to have a slight bulge in the stomach. Should I give up the seat for her, assuming she is pregnent? It was quite a dilemma because it would be extremely embarassing for her (and perhaps myself) if she is not.

unicorns exist

2007-04-28T16:59:00.000+08:00

If there is one thing I have to let you know today, this would be it: Unicorns exists.

Apart from being quoted in the bible in three books (Psalms, Job, Numbers), there are large numbers of cross-references to the unicorns spanned over different geographical locations. Some of these civilizations and cultures have not even made contact with each other when sightings are recorded. In addition, unicorn never appeared in greek mythology, but only in accounts of greek natural history.

More importantly, there is a main difference between unicorns and other legendery creatures: Unicorn is not conceived out of the fears of human beings. Dragons, chimeras, phoenixes are creatures so powerful that they can destroy civilizations. It is understandable that human fears can lead to such vivid imaginations.

Unicorns are such solitary, selfless and majestic creature. It exists!

finish line

2007-04-28T03:38:00.000+08:00

after 12 days of intense racing flippers-to-flippers with each other, the first turtle has reached the finishing region!

billie is sponsored by "offshore center for billfish studies". it will be interesting to see the finishing order for the other turtles. i was kind of rooting for turtlocity so hope it does not turn its back on me literally, and swim in the wrong direction.

on a side note, i am down with a cold, cough and sort throat at the moment. hope it gets better by monday when i reach my own "finishing line" - the last exam paper!

non-original research?

2007-04-25T22:06:00.000+08:00

as a person who might be involved in possible academia research in the future, i feel inclined to cite references even for something as casual as my blog hehe. hence, i will try to add an "alt" tag to all my pictures, which becomes visible on mouse over, citing reference to the source in the APA formatting and style guide.

maybe practicing this constantly can improve on my thesis writing a bit :) and yes i am a geek.

great turtle race

2007-04-25T21:24:00.000+08:00

i found this interesting website about the conservation of leatherback turtles. do take a look and support, by voting, for your favourite leatherback turtle in the great turtle race. the leatherbacks will swim from costa rica to the galapagos islands. they even have a live update on the website every ten minutes to see the current leaderboard!

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these magnificant creatures used to swarm the playa grande beach in the hundreds. their population spanned throughout the pacific region from costa rica to malaysia in 1990. now you have to wait for days just to see one coming up the beach to lay eggs. the turtles in the asian side of the pacific ocean are practically extincted.

as an adult, their gigantic size makes them almost invulnerable to any natural predator. however, their numbers are dwindling extremely quickly due to human activities. they ate plastic bags thrown into the water by humans which they mistake as jellyfish, their favourite food. check out the difference between the two, and imagine looking at them in the water hundreds of meters deep:

in addition, they get accidentely caught by large commercial fishing nets easily and left to die on the fishing docks. the consequences?

the race slogan is a pun with deep implications: "they are going faster than you think"

tinkering

2007-04-24T06:39:00.000+08:00

i have changed and added a few new features to this blog. the contents in the tabs do not make much sense at the moment, but they serve as a placeholder for future developments.

feedbacks will be much appreciated!

the abc song

2007-04-23T22:00:00.000+08:00

today, i am so going to embarrass myself for the sake of de-stressing any of my friends who are mugging for the exams right now. i recorded a short track on my zen micro. it sounds pretty crappy due to one of more of the following reasons:

1) it is recorded in my room (raffles hall) with poor acoustics
2) zen micro recorder always produces echo-y output
3) i sound like crap anyway

i kinda refrain from putting media up on this blog as i take pride in ensuring as fast a loading time as possible. so if it is affecting the loading time quite a bit, do let me know.

more importantly, you HAVE to sing along if you can. *grin*

idiom demystified

2007-04-22T00:13:00.000+08:00

this is something golden which i saw on jinghao's personal message. inspired me to draw a mini comic for it (forgive my awful drawing).

depicts some of the hypocracy in the society, and the ignorance of our own shortcomings when we criticise others, in a light-hearted manner. pays tribute to one of those age-old words of wisdom too.

"a pot calling a kettle black"

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love affair with the dough

2007-04-21T23:32:00.000+08:00

i went to clementi for dinner with daniel, anson and kaiurn today. apart from the usual hawker fare, i have decided to pamper myself a bit and take away one of my childhood favourte: lasagna from pizza hut.

i have fond memories of this heavenly pasta filled with loads of cheese and delicious fillings. i only get to eat them on those really really rare treats to pizza hut by my relatives and parents that occurs once in a blue moon. somehow that experience did not come back.

is it really that tasty? or just the extra sweet feeling of receiving a treat by someone who cares? perhaps a gift from someone close to you would be more cherished than one that you bought yourself.

okok. </emo>

nofx live in singapore

2007-04-20T22:04:00.000+08:00

the punk rock legend nofx is finally coming to play live in singapore tonight at far east square. yay! except i'll be having my first paper tomorrow (phase transformation and kinetics if anyone cares to know the details).

so it seems like i will probably not get to see them for the rest of my life, since i doubt they are coming back any time soon, especially when this is their first show here in over 24 years as musicians.

the consolation prize is that i get to save $60.

3d animator vs animation

2007-04-19T21:44:00.001+08:00

probably not done by the original author of the animator vs animation series, but this one is pretty cool. it gets better towards the end so endure through the pretty slow start.

bring your own bag day

2007-04-18T22:25:00.000+08:00

went for a short shopping trip to ntuc fairprice today. found out that they are running a campaign organised by the national environment agency called "bring your own bag day". basically you can:

1) bring your own bag
2) buy a reusable bag
3) donate 10 cents for every plastic bag taken at the counter

it was funny to see a number of people taken aback by this campaign. they should have seen this coming. anyway this campaign will run every first wednesday of the month from today onwards, which is definitely not sufficient. hopefully if the complains on straits times tomorrow does not cause too much of a commotion, they might extend it into a daily thing :)

blink free photos

2007-04-16T23:43:00.000+08:00

how many times must you take a photo to ensure a 99% chance that no one blinks? some phd folks from australian commonwealth scientific and research organisation actually bothered to do the maths under the following assumptions:

1) a person blinking does not influence others to blink
2) blinking is random

seems like if you are taking a photo of over 50 people, the candle is going to melt completely before the perfect photo is taken. you can read all about it here.

chapter 1

2007-04-10T01:04:00.000+08:00

its time again for exams preparation and today is officially revision day one. i have drafted up a revision time table and first up on the list is cm1121 basic organic chemistry.

for those who are wondering why am i actually doing chemistry, i have no idea either. i disliked chemistry in secondary school, i didn't take chemistry in jc. after i graduate, my course allows me to teach a-levels chemistry. ironic.

centennial light

2007-04-08T19:43:00.000+08:00

this light bulb has tourist coming all over the world just to see it. ripley's believe or not has even featured it in one of its episode. this hand blown light bulb in livermore pleasanton fire department has been burning continuously for 106 years now (except for power failures and moving to a new station location 3 times), and its the longest working bulb in the world.

they have set up a webcam now to show its live footage every 10 seconds... chances are the camera is going to stop working before the light bulb.

you can check it out here.

ippt

2007-04-05T23:06:00.000+08:00

my ippt results for this year...

have only been doing a few upper body workouts in the rh gym but never practice on real pull-ups itself. certainly not a good tactic it seems. if only benny is still forcing me to do pull-ups every tuesdays and thursday hehe.

gotta buckle up on this station if i want to sign on as senior police officer lo. seems like i won't make be able to make it by my ippt window which closes next week but nevertheless training starts today :)

good morning revival

2007-04-03T21:45:00.000+08:00

bought the latest good charlotte album at music junction tampines mall over the weekend.

this album sounds much more alternative compared to their first three punk/emo rock album. perhaps even as some bad childhood memories lingers, time does heal a bit. afterall, they cannot be forever angsty especially now that they can afford mansions and stuff. some riffs do sound pretty familiar and could be inspired by other artistes. overall i am glad they enjoy the music they are making now though i kind of miss some of their old music style.

songs that catch my attention on initial listening are:

dance floor anthmn
where would we be now
keep your hands off my girl
march on

phd comics

2007-04-03T03:19:00.000+08:00

just like to share one of my favourite comic series phdcomics. i'm not a fan of reading comics strips but nerdy ones like these do catch the attention of nerds like me.

i've added a dynamic panel that shows the latest edition of the comic strip in the left navigation bar. enjoy and tell me what you think about it!

visual dna

2007-04-02T06:03:00.000+08:00

saw this on benny's blog and it looks interesting so i did my own too :)

my first movie

2007-03-05T04:44:00.000+08:00

so warriors are getting a buff and druids are getting a nerf in world of warcraft in the coming patch. i've made two short clips all about it :)

Clip 1
Clip 2

p/s: might be incomprehensible if you do not play the game

absence?

2007-02-23T20:27:00.000+08:00

well i wished i could post more often, but i haven't so i'd have to come up with some poor excuses:

1) there is nothing interesting happening in my life. it is boring and routine, almost monotonous.
2) i am looking for a camera. words are boring, pictures are interesting. it is boring to bore bored people with my boring life using boring words.

some of the stuff that happened in the past few months:

1) touch rugby steamboat dinner at marina bay
2) touch rugby mm treat by lixin at cafe brio, grand copthorne waterfront hotel
3) lots of materials science, chemistry and physics experiments and lab reports
4) world of warcraft
5) ihg closing supper and prize presentation
6) reunion dinner and visit to chinatown
7) chinese new year and visiting of relatives
8) lots of touch rugby social games with wanderers rfc

see what i mean? words are boring. i will be back when i get hold of a camera.

longest line

2007-01-21T05:09:00.000+08:00

i took notice of the following lyrics in one of the songs by skate-punk band nofx.

most of us would not be completely satisfied at our state of life at this moment. however i should cherish and be more thankful for what i have. looking back, my life has been extremely fortunate compared to the people who are truly at the end of the longest line. and for most of these people, i might not ever meet nor able to reach out to them.

i must be wrong
this can't be right
i don't belong
this world is much too dangerous
for someone lack of luck like me

at the end of the longest line
that's where i will always be
if you need to find me
just come to the end of the longest line

megabites

2007-01-17T20:05:00.000+08:00

i went to the temporary arts canteen "megabites" with some of my hall mates today. they have a fruit stall, nasi padang stall, chicken rice stall, noodle stall etc. as usual, i headed straight towards the western food stall.

part of the menu goes:

chicken chop $2.50
chicken cutlet $2.80
fish cutlet $2.80
combo (chicken and fish) $3.20

the pricing wasn't too balanced so obviously i bought the combo which consists of:

1 big and thick piece of chicken with gravy
2 pieces of "fish and chip" fish
mash potato with gravy
coleslaw

it tasted a bit like catered food, but its worth the money.

mkt1003

2007-01-13T10:38:00.000+08:00

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ihg

2007-01-12T23:33:00.000+08:00

i represented RH for 3 sports this year in the inter-hall games. results were fine but i still didn't pull off a performance that is enough to clinch a gold medal.

touch rugby - 3rd

our biggest chance at gold. our offense was a bit shaky in the beginning which led to a number of draws. even though we were unbeatened and conceded only one try throughout the round robin tournament, we still ended up one point behind EH and two points behind SH.

track and field, 4x100m - 3rd

this year, our team got stronger with an average time of 11.7s. i was arrowed to be the starter leg despite screwing it up numerous times during practice. somehow my start and handover to the 2nd leg (tony) went off smoothy during the actual race.

we were still comfortably in the 2nd position by around 7 metres when the baton was passed to our anchor leg (xiafan). unfortunately, the TH runner caught up with xiafan and clinched the second position in the photo finish.

badminton, kr - lost

i'm not very good at badminton in the first place, and got paired against the first seed of the favourites hall (wilson). basically i got owned.

school reopens

2007-01-08T20:46:00.000+08:00

i had one lecture today, which is the basic organic chem module. i almost fell asleep as i was sitting right at the end of the big auditorium.

tomorrow i'll be having my first laboratory experiment session. its strange that materials engineering start the labs on week one, and its two times a week of three hour each! hope it'll be a bit more involving and fun than last semesters' experiments.

school reopening

2007-01-07T13:29:00.000+08:00

welcome 2007! yeah its a bit late but there hasn't been much exciting occurance lately other than dinner meetups and training.

however, today is the last day before school reopens tomorrow. once again i'll be taking 6 modules next semester:

mle2103 phase transformation and kinetics
mle2104 mechanical properties of materials
mle2105 electronic properties of materials
cm1121 basic organic chemistry
pc2193 experimental physics 1
mkt1003 principles of marketing

the sartor i chose was a bit last minute as i originally didn't intend to take one this semester, and many other choices have clashes with my other modules. with my poor command of grammar and speech, i think it'll be suicidal not to s/u this module :)

or maybe if its bad enough i might drop it before the "drop with w/ grade" kicks in.

curse of the golden flower

2006-12-31T12:21:00.000+08:00

yesterday i went vivocity to meet up with a bunch of my jc friends, and they decided to watch the "curse of the golden flower". i have no idea about the movie so i decided to just watch and see how it goes.

at the end of the movie, i saw that the credits included chow yuan fatt, gong li and jay chow. i asked my friend which character is jay and they told me its the eldest son who led the coup.

when i came back to hall, daniel told me that some of his friends said jay sucked in acting. i was a bit surprised because i thought that role (which i did not know is acted by jay initially) was pretty well played. perhaps its my lousy judgement or people being biased towards famous celebrities when they venture into other areas of entertainment.

overall, i really liked the movie. go watch it if you have the time, which there isn't much left... at least for 2006.

a prayer of a physicist

2006-12-26T16:48:00.000+08:00

Dear Father in Heaven,

Praise You for all Your act of creation
Of the wonderful universe I am living in now
For your magnificent design of heaven and earth
And the architecture of the physical laws

From the tiniest quark, to hadrons leptons
To atoms, to the matter world
From Newton, to Einstein, to Planck
To Schrodinger, to Feynman
From mechanics, to electrodynamics
To relativity, to quantum realm

Of how the Lagrangian determines the equation of motion
And the Hamiltonian causes the evolution
Of how the space-time is curved
And field is quantized and normalized

Yet, it's always come to my astonishment
When all the physical laws tallied up
Consistent as they are, persistent as they should be
As if they are part of the mother-nature's
Harmonious grand symphony
Bearing the witness of Your Almighty Power

Who am I to be able to understand Your creation fully
Yet, my soul longs for more
My mind is restless for questions
And my body never worn off seeking answers
In my conscience is the wisdom of the universe
In my grasp is the power, to create or to destroy humanity

Hence, teach me O' Lord
To fear Your Presence
For all knowledge begin from You
And all wisdom belong to You

Guard my heart O' God
Lest my pride take the best of me
Be a good scientist I desire to
And be your faithful servant I'm willing to

Yet, not my desire be fulfilled but Yours be done
For at the end, all glory belong to You
The Greatest Physicist
Of all eternity

In the name of Jesus Christ
I've prayed and thanked You.

Amen

christmas

2006-12-26T16:24:00.000+08:00

i bought a lcd monitor to free up some desktop space.

i had my ritual pizza dinner on christmas eve: huizhen, daniel and i ordered 2for1 canadian pizza. this year was different from previous years as i used to order pizza hut instead while watching home alone at home, alone.

christmas was pretty uneventful as usual. i basically slept through the morning before going back to tampines to meet some of my jc friends. we originally wanted to eat at cartel but the queue was extremely long. hence, we settled for the "foodcourt standard, restaurant pricing" han's restaurant. after dinner, we went to the void deck to play "big 2" while eating candies and chocalates.

merry christmas. boxing day is the day nus students open their present: exam results

BEng & Lian - 0002

2006-12-20T13:45:00.000+08:00

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*squeak*

johari and nohari windows

2006-12-20T00:25:00.000+08:00

i found these two websites from some of my friends' blog and would really appreciate if you can share a bit about your impression of me. i've added the two websites to the "curiosity" section on the left as well.

positive trait - johari window
negative trait - nohari window

year end holiday

2006-12-20T00:07:00.000+08:00

i haven't been keeping in touch with my old friends due to schoolwork, and i feel pretty sad and guilty about it. some of these friendships seemed like those which would last forever when we were able to meet daily (be it school or army), but going into different phases in life pulled the distance apart.

it occured to me that university might be the last time i can get away with pulling pranks, name calling, lame jokes, and do all other sorts childish nonsense to our friends in a forgiving environment. i need to cherish these times before they slip past my fingers once again.

i need to make an effort to meet up with my old friends during this short term break.

cats and dogs

2006-12-19T05:05:00.000+08:00

it has been raining non-stop for 17 hours. it'll be interesting to see the condition of the nus src field later in the morning.

ntu hall 11 visit

2006-12-16T00:12:00.000+08:00

raffles hall hosted the annual "ntu hall 11 - raffles hall combined event" for a full day of fun and bonding between the two sister halls. sports was one of the event held in the morning and we played some social game of touch rugby.

problem is field one seemed to be closed for the day

but then again boys will be boys...

it lasted till the campus security came :)

BEng & Lian - 0001

2006-12-13T01:18:00.000+08:00

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*squeak*

phd anyone?

2006-12-13T01:00:00.000+08:00

someone started this experiment in 1930 to test the fluidity and viscosity of pitch. i hope the researcher is not going for phd thesis as the experiment lasted over 76 years.

1930 The stem was cut
1938 (Dec) 1st drop fell
1947 (Feb) 2nd drop fell
1954 (Apr) 3rd drop fell
1962 (May) 4th drop fell
1970 (Aug) 5th drop fell
1979 (Apr) 6th drop fell
1988 (Jul) 7th drop fell
2000 (Nov) 8th drop fell

don't be deceived by the smiling face. that was years ago... she's an unhappy grump now.

night cycling

2006-12-10T16:51:00.000+08:00

just woke up after sleeping through the day due to rh night cycling. i didn't really sign up for the event and was lucky as there was two extra bikes. my group consists of huizhen, huiyuan, wanjun, junda, daniel, ~~xingyi~~ yingxin, jasmine, jasmine's friend, jasmine's friend's friend and i.

we started off from raffles hall towards ~~KEP~~ KAP (and i'm still figuring what that abbreviation stands for) macdonalds. to everyone's dissapointment, the dessert kiosk is closed and nobody ate anything except me who got a double cheeseburger. so people can start laughing at me now that it's a well known fact i *do* get trashy fastfood on supper trips.

after that, we cycled towards some eating place which i'm not sure of its location. there are about 7 stalls open with the stall owners looking as if we are the first customers in 10 years. the minute we stepped into the hawker center, this indian muslim food stall owner started touting for business and repeatedly chanting through his menu for the next minute or so. at the end, we felt that the variety is not enough so we decided to eat at newton circus instead. poor stall owner who probably have to wait another 10 years for business...

at newton circus, we met some other rh night cycling groups. we ordered carrot cakes, fried oyster, hokkien mee, minced meat noodle, satay and lots of sugarcane juice. food is pretty nice but expensive.

next, we rode to esplande and stoned there for a while. some of the folks were discussing about astrology (something about orion, southern cross etc) while gazing at the sky. during this short period of time jasmine found a better activity to do: catch a quick nap (that opportunist!). there were as usual some young punks horsing around their bikes and acting cool, except they are probably under the teenager curfew at that time.

finally we arrived at east coast park. i had fillet-o-fish breakfast meal. yeap, fastfood again :)

mensa chalet

2006-12-09T00:34:00.000+08:00

yesterday night i went for the annual mensa chalet and stayed over until tonight's bbq. i just reached my hall after a brief 30hrs of fresh air outside nus, which is possibly more than the total amount of time i spent outside nus/ofs for the past 4 months this semester :)

unfortunately i didn't bring my camera along so i'd have to wait for the organisers to post the photos on their website. but if you *ever* been to any mensa gatherings by some weird coincidence (as a friend or member), you know it typically looks like this:

so we were playing intellectual board/card games most of the time. in fact i might as well replace all future mensa outing photos with the above generic photo since it would work pretty well. we also went to 'wild wild wet' on some complimentary tickets, so for the first time ever, that attraction was totally worth the money (aka free).

what amused me most was the way they tried to start the bbq fire unsuccessfully, using close to half a box of firestarters, by the time i went downstairs after a short nap. nevetheless the people were nice and all so it's cool.

long overdue

2006-12-07T07:55:00.000+08:00

exams are over and i finally got the chance to start this blog that i've been thinking of for a while... hopefully i'll have many interesting journeys in my life to put up on this site.

btw if you're wondering where did i get the picture on the top of the website, it's from one of my trips to pulau ubin in june 2004. this is the original picture i used:

somehow i don't have a graphics editor other than mspaint in my computer, so most of the work is done on http://myimager.com. a big thanks goes out to the folks who made that online graphics editor!